Tītī − muttonbirding

Muttonbirds, or sooty shearwaters, are known to Māori as tītī. These seabirds, according to one 18th-century commentator, taste remarkably like sheep meat. Muttonbirds are harvested by Rakiura (Stewart Island) Māori, the Māori people of New Zealand’s southernmost region. Their cultural legacy includes travelling once a year to the 36 islands around the southern tip of the country, where the birds are a prized catch.

Muttonbirding in New Zealand

The muttonbird, tītī, or sooty shearwater (Puffinus
griseus), is a member of the petrel family of seabirds
(Procellariidae). The birds have dark brown plumage, with
silvery-white markings under the wings. At breeding time in
late November they dig burrows in the ground, where they lay
a single egg.

Humans have hunted petrels since earliest times.
Archaeological data indicates that petrels were widely
distributed throughout prehistoric New Zealand, and later
regularly harvested by Māori, although to what extent remains
uncertain.

The collecting of muttonbird chicks is one of the few
remaining large-scale harvests of any petrel species in the
world, and is commonly known as muttonbirding. The term
refers to the collecting of chicks or fledglings of small to
medium-size. Although the exact origin of the English name is
unclear, it appears to come from an 18th-century account of
the harvest of wedge-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus
pacificus) on Norfolk Island, where the chicks were
described as being remarkably fat with meat resembling
mutton.

A number of other petrel species have been harvested in
New Zealand, although on a much smaller scale. A few
grey-faced petrels (Pterodroma macroptera gouldi)
are caught by Hauraki Māori from islands in the Aldermen
(Ruamāhua) Group off the Coromandel Peninsula.

Rakiura Māori rights to muttonbirding

Rakiura (Stewart Island) Māori, the Māori people of New
Zealand’s southernmost region and their descendants, have
rights to gather muttonbirds on 36 islands, known as the Tītī
Islands, around Stewart Island. They can harvest chicks each
year from 1 April to 31 May. Under the Tītī (Muttonbird)
Islands Regulations 1978, people can arrive from 15 March to
prepare for the season.

Birds in abundance

Muttonbirds are probably the most numerous of all the
seabirds in New Zealand, with the largest known colony of
about 2 million breeding pairs on the Snares Islands, about
100 kilometres south of Stewart Island. It is estimated
there is a global population of 40–60 million, which breed
on the mainland of New Zealand, Australia, South America
and South Africa, and their offshore islands.

The muttonbirding rights of Rakiura Māori are also
guaranteed by the 1864 Deed of Cession of Stewart Island.
Under subsequent regulation, 18 of the Tītī Islands are
termed Beneficial Islands, to which only certain Rakiura
Māori families have joint ownership and right of access. The
remaining 18 are known as the Rakiura Tītī Islands, which up
until the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 were also
known as the Crown Tītī Islands. Prior to 1998 they were
owned and controlled by the Crown, subject to the right of
Rakiura Māori to harvest tītī.

Rakiura Māori have used muttonbirds for food, as a trade
item, and for their feathers and down. The harvest has huge
cultural and economic significance.

Muttonbirds are plentiful, and in recorded history Rakiura
Māori have never imposed a catch quota. Harvest-management
systems on each of the islands are determined by traditional
guidelines (kaitiakitanga) or by the muttonbirders who arrive
there before 1 April. There are two main forms of
management:

A closed system, where families have a designated
harvesting area

An open system, where individuals have the right to
harvest chicks from anywhere on the island.

Muttonbirding systems have changed over the years,
depending on the method most preferred by the Rakiura
beneficiaries and the 18 Crown Tītī Islands at the time.

Getting to the Tītī Islands

Access to the islands has traditionally been by boat, and
this continues to be the main way of transporting the large
quantities of equipment that are required. Helicopters are
now often used, making it quicker and safer to unload the
boats, and giving people more freedom to come and go.

Harvesting

The harvesting of sooty shearwaters, muttonbirds or tītī
is divided into two stages: nanao, when chicks are extracted
from their burrows; and rama, when they are caught above
ground under torchlight.

Nanao

The nanao period usually lasts from 1 to 22 April,
although this may vary from year to year and between
islands.

Muttonbirders work during daylight to take chicks from
their burrows. Each burrow holds a single chick. Harvesters
lie on the ground and reach into the nest chamber to catch
and carefully manoeuvre the chick out. If it cannot be
reached from the entrance, muttonbirders sometimes dig a hole
and pull it out. Great care is taken to seal the hole with a
puru (earthern plug) to prevent water from entering the
chamber or collapsing it.

Once the chick is removed from the burrow it is quickly
killed and pressure is applied to its abdomen so it
regurgitates any proventricular oil or stomach contents. Some
muttonbirders then plug the throat with feathers or dirt to
stop any remaining stomach contents leaking out and soiling
the feathers, as this makes plucking difficult.

Rama

The rama period can last from mid-April until 31 May, but
harvesting usually stops by 15–20 May because most chicks
have fledged and left the islands. The moon and the weather
largely govern harvesting during this period.

Muttonbirders work at night by torchlight or with lanterns
to catch chicks when they emerge from their burrows to
exercise their developing wings. Chicks prefer to come out on
dark, moonless nights, especially when there is wind and
rain. In such conditions, muttonbirders are able to catch the
most birds in the least time.

Processing

Once muttonbirds have been caught and killed they are
transported to the workhouse for processing. About five
chicks are tied to each end of a length of flax or twine and
either carried back to the workhouse or, where possible, sent
down wires running from the hillsides to the workhouses.
Processing is highly labour intensive, and the methods used
vary between families. The following is a general description
of the main procedures.

Plucking

Chicks are plucked as soon as possible after they have
been caught – the feathers are easier to remove while the
birds are still warm. For this reason some muttonbirders like
to pluck their birds while still out in the birding ground.
Plucking is done by hand, or by a purpose-built machine
powered by a generator. Machine plucking puts less strain on
hands and fingers and is marginally faster. By way of
comparison, an experienced muttonbirder can usually
hand-pluck a chick in about 46 seconds, and a machine in 40
seconds. Care is taken not to rip the birds’ skin as this
reduces its value.

Waxing

When the feathers have been plucked, a layer of fine down
and pin feathers (new growth) remains. These are usually
removed with hot wax. After the birds’ wings and feet have
been cut off, their bodies are dipped into a copper vat of
molten wax floating on hot water. When the wax has cooled and
solidified around the bird, it is cracked and peeled off,
taking the downy feathers with it and exposing a clean white
body. The wax is recycled every season. In the past,
muttonbirders would dip the chicks into large pots of hot
water and rub off the down by hand.

Preserving

The clean chicks are hung for a period. They are then
split longitudinally through the breastbone and their
internal organs are removed. Each chick is graded by size,
covered with salt, and packed into 10-litre plastic buckets
for storage. Preserved in this way and kept cool, the birds
can keep for a year or more.

Packaging

Before plastic buckets were common, different types of
storage containers were used, including large tins and wooden
barrels. More traditional are pōhā – bags made of hollowed,
inflated blades of bull kelp, enclosed in strips of tōtara
bark and placed in flax baskets. A few Māori still use kelp
bags, some using the birds’ own fat instead of salt as a
preservative; this is called tītī-pōhā or tītī-tahu. On
occasion the chicks are preserved without having their
stomachs removed – these birds are known as tītī-puku.

The future of muttonbirding

Rakiura Māori have initiated a long-term research
programme with the University of Otago to monitor the birds
and assess the effects of harvesting. Studies carried out in
1999 and 2002 have indicated that on some harvested and
unharvested islands populations have fallen by 30–40% over
the last two decades. The decline has been partly linked to
climatic phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation,
a periodic warming of the ocean. Also, muttonbirds are often
killed as by-catch in commercial fisheries in the northern
Pacific. Preliminary estimates of sustainability and
management recommendations will begin to emerge from the
studies by 2008, guiding the practice of muttonbirding to
ensure the birds remain plentiful.

A personal account of muttonbirding

Ailsa Cain recollects her childhood experiences of
muttonbirding.

Getting together

The most important thing for me when muttonbirding as a
child was the way we got together as a family. We lived in
Milton and would drive down to Bluff, where we would take a
fishing boat to Papatea (Green Island). At that time there
were only three houses being used on the island. Attached to
the house where we stayed was a workshop for processing the
muttonbirds. In addition, there was a pluck hut on the manu
(birding ground). It had a coal range, radio and seats, but
was otherwise pretty basic.

Different jobs

Jobs were allocated by age. The little kids were the
unwaxers (where the wax is peeled off to remove the down).
Then you graduated to a gutter. You knew that you would not
become a wax dipper or salter until you were about 50. We
stayed on the island for around a month and had to do our
school work and write a diary. The jobs I remember disliking
were throwing the guts away and collecting firewood.

Daily routine

We would get up around 9 a.m. and have breakfast. Then we
would do school work and help out around the house. We would
have lunch and do some work related to the muttonbirds. Then
we’d go out to play on the beach or in the bush before coming
home about 4 p.m. to go to bed. We’d get up at about 6 p.m.,
have tea, and then walk out to the manu. We would catch and
pluck muttonbirds, with us kids usually going home about 11
p.m. If we were good and carried some birds back, our mum
would read us a story and give us a girdle scone (a flat
scone also known as a soda scone).

My enduring memory of this time is the absolute freedom we
had as children to freely explore the bush and seashore.
These places were totally unspoilt by people, as no one was
allowed on the island other than during muttonbird season,
between 1 April and 31 May.

Big South Cape Island

We later decided to go to another manu on Taukihepa (Big
South Cape Island) because it was where my taua (grandmother)
Naina used to bird as a girl. There are a lot more people and
birds on this island compared to when we birded there as
children. Some people now travel there by helicopter, leaving
from Bluff or Riverton. Some people continue to travel from
Bluff or Riverton by fishing boat, which can take up to nine
hours. Others take the catamaran that leaves from Bluff, and
this takes only four hours. Before, we tended to be a lot
more conscious of our supplies because they had to last for
the entire season. However, now with so many boats and
helicopters calling in, it is much easier to get provisions,
mail and the newspaper.

On this island we got to see many more ways of doing
things. The manu is not as spread out and sparse as the one
on Papatea, so the process is more intensive for the plucker
– more birds are caught in a shorter time, and they have to
be plucked while they are still warm.

We’ve found that by being on Big South Cape Island we have
formed closer ties with the other families that bird there.
Because birds don’t come out during a full moon, this is a
great time to get together with nearby families and
socialise. It’s a rare occasion, because harvesting and
processing is so intensive the rest of the time.

External links and sources

More suggestions and sources

Anderson, A. ‘Historical and archaeological aspects of muttonbirding in New Zealand.’ New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 6 (1997): 35–55.